Some cookies are essential to ensure our website works for you. You may block or delete all cookies from this site but parts of the site may not work. To find out more about how we use cookies, see our privacy statement.

Overview

The SATDOCK25U Hard Drive Docking Station provides full, instant access to any 2.5in SATA (SATA, SATA II, SATA III) hard drive or solid state drive - without having to mount the hard drive in a computer or install it in an enclosure!

This highly compact HDD dock offers the portability needed to add simple external storage to virtually any USB-capable computer, making it a definite asset to have on hand to connect external (bare) hard drives even in mobile computing applications. Plus, it's small form factor design requires minimal space on a desktop or work bench. Large capacity drives (tested with up to 1TB) can be used to greatly enhance your computer's storage/backup capabilities.

Simply insert a 2.5in SATA hard drive or SSD into the dock, then connect the hard drive dock to a host computer through USB 2.0. To uninstall or swap the hard drive, simply disconnect the USB cable and remove the drive from the dock!

In addition to providing a fast convenient way to access or recover data from a mobile 2.5in drive this dock is completely USB powered, so no power adapter is required. The HDD Dock supports plug and play hard drive installation on most operating systems, and offers data transfer speeds of up to 480Mbps - a convenient alternative to external hard drive enclosures that saves the time needed to prepare the drive for conventional installation.

The StarTech.com Advantage

Ultra compact design and no external power adapter for excellent versatility and portability

Backed by a StarTech.com 2-year warranty and free lifetime technical support

Applications

Access spare or removed 2.5" drives quickly to retrieve data from

Data recovery specialists who need quick access to drives for imaging

Backup data quickly to an external drive for archiving

Technicians who regularly test or benchmark different hard drives and need to swap between them

Product Support

Manuals

Data Sheets

Frequently Asked Questions

Before You Buy

To determine if your hard drive will work in this device, on the product page, click the Technical Specifications tab, and do the following:

Make sure that the device supports the storage size of your hard drive. If the storage size of your hard drive is larger than what the device was tested with, the hard drive will likely still work with the enclosure.

Confirm that your hard drive uses the same interface type as the device. For example, IDE, SATA, or M.2.

Make sure that the device supports the physical size of your hard drive, such as 2.5 inches or 3.5 inches.

Verify that the power consumption of your hard drive doesn’t exceed the power output of the device. If you’re using multiple hard drives, make sure that the combined power consumption of all of the hard drives doesn’t exceed the power output of the docking station.

Was this information helpful?Yes No

How to

In Device Manager, under the appropriate heading, confirm that your expansion card is listed and that there isn't an exclamation mark next to it. For example, a USB controller card would be under Universal Serial Bus controllers.

Your USB device is listed according to the name of the chipset. To determine the name of the chipset of your USB device, navigate to www.StarTech.com and look on the Technical Specifications tab for your product.

Was this information helpful?Yes No

To confirm that the Mac OS detects your USB device, complete the following:

Click the Apple icon.

Click About This Mac.

Click More Info or System Report.

Under the appropriate heading, confirm that your USB device is listed and that there isn't an error. For example, a network card would be under Ethernet Cards.

You may need to refresh the System Information page after you plug in your device. To do so, press Command + R with the System Information page open.

Your USB device is listed according to the name of the chipset. To determine the name of the chipset of your USB device, navigate to www.StarTech.com and look on the Technical Specifications tab for your product.

Was this information helpful?Yes No

Troubleshooting

When you troubleshoot issues with a hard drive dock or duplicator, there are some quick tests that you can complete to rule out potential problems. You can test to make sure that the following components are working correctly and are not the source of the issue:

IDE, SATA, and eSATA cables

Hard drives

Hard drive dock or duplicator

To test your setup components, try the following:

Use the cables, hard drives, and hard drive dock or duplicator in another setup to see if the problem is with the components or the setup.

Use a different cable, hard drive, and hard drive dock or duplicator in your setup to see if the problem persists. Ideally, you should test a component that you know works in another setup.

When you test the hard drive and hard drive dock or duplicator, it is recommended that you do the following:

Note: For a hard drive duplicator you may need to switch the device to PC mode (if available).

If the hard drive is listed with unallocated space, the hard drive needs to be reformatted. Right-click unallocated and click New Simple Volume. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the reformatting.​

Note: Formatting a hard drive erases all of the data on it. Make sure that you back up all of your data before you reformat the hard drive.

If the hard drive is listed as healthy but does not have a drive letter, for example, C:, right-click healthy and click Change Drive Letter and Paths. Click Add, assign a drive letter, and click OK.

Note: A formatted hard drive will not show up in Computer or My Computer until it has a drive letter assigned to it.

Was this information helpful?Yes No

This docking station allows the hard drive to enforce its own power state, as opposed to enforcing a power state that keeps the hard drive active at all times. Since most newer hard drives have low-power energy conservation modes, this will cause the hard drive to enter an idle state if it is not used for a certain amount of time.